Clone Wars
The Clone Wars (22-??), occasionally referred to as the Clone War or the Separatist War, was the name given to the major galactic war fought between the Galactic Republic and the Confederacy of Independent Systems. The war was fought between the Grand Army of the Republic and the Separatist Droid Army, and the fighting would rapidly spread throughout the galaxy. The Grand Army of the Republic was lead into battle by the Jedi Knights, peacekeepers-turned-soldiers of the Republic. The Jedi High Council took command of the Sector Armies and assigned individual command of legions and battalions to Jedi Knights. The Separatist Droid Army was lead by General Grievous and Count Dooku, including several Dark Jedi that came to Dooku's service. Origins Separatist Crisis Although the Clone Wars officially began in 22 BBY at the Battle of Geonosis, their origins could be found over a century earlier. Though a fictive event controlled by Darth Sidious, the war had its origins in the age-old divide between the galaxy's inner and outer systems. In 124 BBY, the Galactic Senate passed two critical pieces of legislation: the entire Outer Rim Territories were declared a Free Trade Zone, repealing numerous sector-level taxes. Since the Ruusan Reformations of 1000 BBY and the abolition of a centralized Republic Navy, the Outer Rim had been plagued by piracyand slavers, breeding political isolation. The act hoped to jump-start legitimate commerce and so restore ties between the Core and the Rim. Additionally, the status of "functional constituencies" was extended to include Senatorial representation of the galaxy's largest guilds and corporations. These twin acts benefited various mega-corporations, including the InterGalactic Banking Clan and the Corporate Alliance, but none more so than the Trade Federation, a Neimoidian trade cartel. The Trade Federation rapidly expanded into the Outer Rim, stifled competition, and enforced deals with its powerful Trade Defense Force. By 67 BBY it enjoyed full voting privileges in the Galactic Senate, and within a decade commanded the votes of hundreds of systems. Many on Coruscant supported the Trade Federation, admiring the TDF's rapid extinction of piracy on the major hyperlanes. Others bemoaned Trade Federation corruption and the extinction of representation for the systems it controlled. At Sidious' behest, the Trade Federation began a blockade of Palpatine's homeworld of Naboo. The entire incident made Valorum look weak, and in the Senate debate over what action to take over the blockade, Palpatine induced the enraged Queen Padmé Amidala of Naboo to demand a Vote of No Confidence in his leadership. In the aftermath, a strong sympathy vote for Naboo rode Senator Palpatine to the office of Supreme Chancellor. Thus, a Sith Lord had control of the Galactic Republic Formation of the Confederacy During this time, Palpatine, in his alter ego Darth Sidious, had contacted the experienced Jedi Master Count Dooku. Having lost his apprentice Darth Maul during the Naboo conflict, Palpatine was in need of a new apprentice and Dooku, whose own faith in the Republic had been shattered following the Battle of Galidraan and the subsequent inaction over Naboo, seemed the perfect one to mold. Having killed his old friend Jedi Master Sifo-Dyas to seal his fate and become Darth Tyranus, Dooku was then ordered to eliminate any reference to Kamino from the Jedi Archives: having had a vision that war was imminent, Sifo-Dyas had contacted the Kaminoans to organise the creation of a clone army for the Republic. Sidious did not intend to have the Jedi discover the clone army secretly being grown for them until they were desperate for an army. After being deemed worthy, Jango Fett was commissioned by Dooku to be the template for this army. In 24 BBY, Palpatine's eight year term as Supreme Chancellor was coming to an end. At roughly the same time, Dooku emerged on Raxus Prime. In the Raxus Address, Dooku declared his disillusionment with the Republic and his intention to form the Confederacy of Independent Systems, a group of disenfranchised organizations and governments whose goal was to secede from the Republic. The Raxus Address triggered a wave of secessions, beginning the Separatist Crisis. Fearing instability amid the crisis, the Senate permitted Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to stay in office longer than the term limits the Galactic Constitution permitted. Later, these systems would be joined by the corporate entities of the galaxy: the Baktoid Armor Workshop, the Commerce Guild, the Corporate Alliance, the Techno Union, the InterGalactic Banking Clan and of course the Trade Federation. These corporations were leaving the Republic over trade route taxation and seeking their own business-friendly government. Other seceding systems simply wanted independence and were wary of forming a new centralised government. In time, the military and economic power of the megacorporations would see them as members of the Separatist Council and override the authority of the democratic Separatist Parliament. Jedi Mission to Geonosis Main Article: Battle of Geonosis The Battle of Geonosis was the first battle of the Clone Wars. The battle occurred after Separatist forces captured Obi-Wan Kenobi on Geonosis and charged him with spying for the Republic. Anakin Skywalker and Senator Padmé Amidala attempted to rescue Kenobi, but were also captured and sentenced to death. A Jedi strike force led by Mace Windu stormed the Petranaki arena], where the prisoners were to be killed. The ensuing battle resulted in the deaths of many Jedi and the bounty hunter and template of the clone army, Jango Fett. This was the first time the Jedi have ever faced B2 Super Battle Droids and were overwhelmed by their upgraded intelligence, armor, and weapons The Jedi managed to hold their own for some time but were being beaten back by the outnumbering droid forces. As they prepared to fight to the end, the clone army, under Yoda's command, dropped from the sky in |Republic gunships]. Managing to rescue the Jedi from the arena, the clones engaged the droid army on the fields of Geonosis, in order to prevent their escape. The Clone Wars begin Count Dooku would escape Geonosis after crippling Skywalker and Kenobi and a brief exchange of blows with Master Yoda, his escape eliminated any hopes of ending the war before it began and the Confederacy mobilized across the Outer Rim. The Grand Army of the Republic was established and sent forth to combat the Droid Armies on multiple fronts, dying in the millions whilst serving the Republic. Early Battles Year one (22-21 BBY) Inner Rim Campaigns Although the Battle of Geonosis was a victory for the Republic, the prospect of a war between the Republic and the Confederacy was now inevitable. Millions of clone trooper units departed from Coruscant on missions to find and defeat the Confederacy. The clones were led in these missions by the Jedi Knights, the first time that the Jedi Order had taken up arms en masse since the Seventh Battle of Ruusan a thousand years prior. Despite the scale of the opening battle of Geonosis, however, neither side yet had the resources or the strategy to fight a major galactic war. The Republic in particular was bedeviled by the fact that at this early stage the Grand Army of the Republic numbered only 3 million troops (it would eventually be expanded many times over). To coordinate the strategy of the war, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine ordered the establishment of the sector armies, large military commands that operated within theatres known as oversectors or priority sectors, areas of operations that overrode old sector boundaries. Each sector army initially numbered 150,000 clone troopers, numbers which expanded dramatically as the war went on. Under the command of the new Jedi Generals, the sector armies served as rapid reaction forces while the Republic's disparate Planetary Security Forces operated in defensive deployments - a number of battles in the Clone Wars were fought entirely by Planetary Security Forces without a clone trooper or a battle droid in sight. Each sector army was divided into four subordinate corps, of which three were further divided into smaller components. Under the "1/4/16/64 Plan", one corps was maintained as a mobile reserve force while the others were divided into progressively smaller units so that one army could fulfill one corps operation, four brigade-level operations, sixteen regiment-level operations or sixty-four battalion-level operations. In reality, sector army deployments were rarely so neat, and typically one corps in each army remained intact, but the others were divided into hundreds of small, fast-moving raiding companies. Battle of Bestine Main Article: Battle of Bestine (Clone Wars) 1st Battle of Agamar Main Article: Battle of Agamar (Clone Wars) The Battle of Agamar was a naval conflict in which the Sector army in the Mirgoshir System saw its first engagement against the Seperatist Agamarian Navy. The Battle was short, with most of the New Capital Ships of the Republic Navy being overwhelmed and destroyed, whilst the remained of the RJDF Ships and Republic Navy retreated to Chabash. Jedi Master Tiber, his Padawan Renol, and CC-3245 managed to escaped to the Agamar's surface in Lifepods. Once they made landing, they began to explore options on how to smuggle themselves off-planet. Master Tiber would lead the survivors to Calna Muun to secure a transport off-world through the blockade, avoiding droid patrols and local authorities. Battle of Muunilinst References * Information on the Clone Wars